Iraq postponed hanging two of Saddam Hussein's aides amid international pressure following the ousted president's much criticized execution.

Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence head and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, the head of the revolutionary court, were to have been hanged on Thursday morning after the end of the Eid al-Adha holiday. However, a senior official from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office told AFP the execution was postponed "due to international pressure."

But Baha al-Araji, an senior Shiite lawmaker from Moqtada al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc, said: "I am sure it will be done on Sunday."

On November 5, Saddam, Barzan and Bandar were found guilty of ordering the judicial murder 148 Shiite men and boys from the village Dujail in the 1980s, and sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.